


On The Tracks

by captainkippen



Series: JATP Appreciation Week 2020 [3]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Falling In Love, Meet-Cute, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:53:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27353017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainkippen/pseuds/captainkippen
Summary: Day 3: A fic focused on your favorite ship.Julie and Luke fall in love one commute at a time.Written forJulie and the Phantoms Appreciation Week 2020.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: JATP Appreciation Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993720
Comments: 24
Kudos: 436
Collections: JATP Appreciation Week





	On The Tracks

The metro rail was a holy place in the early hours of the morning. Usually. Of course, it could also be a hellish place, depending on the weather and the day, or the general mood of the population upon waking up, but most of the time Julie liked to think of it as holy. 

Why? Because it was the one part of her day where she didn’t have to think. She had a routine, you see, one so carefully planned out and perfect that she could follow it on autopilot without a second thought. Wake up at five-thirty, hit snooze seven or eight times, get up and battle her hair into submission, then head to the station (maybe grab some coffee on the way if there was time) and nab one of those lucky single seats. She would put on her headphones, hit play on whatever Spotify playlist that Flynn had made her that week, and spend the next twenty minutes daydreaming happily before she was launched into a hectic day working at the studio.

The single seats weren’t always a possibility, but only on rare days. Those were the days she knew were going to be bad from the get-go. If the metro couldn’t save her then nothing could.

Unfortunately, today seemed to be one of those rare hellish days. The station was packed when she arrived, filled with tired and annoyed-looking commuters. Julie herself was still half-asleep – the queue at the coffee place had been too long to risk it this morning – and her hair had decided it didn’t _want_ to be styled today, instead choosing to make a nuisance of itself and fly in every direction she didn’t want it to until she gave up and forced it back into a messy bun.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked no one in particular. 

A woman nearby grimaced.

“Maintenance issues. They cancelled that last car.”

Ugh. Great. There would be no daydreaming today. 

When the next car arrived, the rush forward almost took knocked Julie down. She hurried inside, searching desperately for a free seat, but no such luck. She sighed, resigning herself to clutching a nearby pole for support and focused on not letting the crush of bodies restrict her breathing.

It was an uncomfortable ride. She wished Flynn was there to joke with her.

The car screeched to a such a sudden halt at the next stop that it sent Julie stumbling backwards. Had it not been for the solid mass of people behind her she would’ve gone flying, but she was saved by a pair of strong hands grabbing her by the shoulders.

“Sorry!” she said, turning around in a fluster.

“No problem,” said her rescuer. 

Her mouth went dry. A guy, a _cute_ guy, who must’ve been around her age stood there with a guitar case slung across his back and a wide smile on his face. He had the prettiest hazel eyes she’d ever seen.

He was there again the week after. The station was packed again. According to the signs posted around the entrance, maintenance would be carried out every Monday morning for the foreseeable future. God, what a nightmare, she thought as she fought her way onto a car. It was too busy. The seats were all filled again. Her shoulders drooped in disappointment.

“Hey, quick, over here!”

Frowning, she turned around and quickly found herself frozen in surprise. It was the guy from last week, the one who had saved her from falling over, and he was looking right at her.

He had managed to snag a seat, one of a double set, and had spread himself out to make the other seat as uninviting to strangers as possible. Julie stared at him as he gestured to her and then the seat. It seemed like a bad idea, she didn’t know the guy after all, but… she kind of just wanted to be able to chill and listen to her music. Praying he wasn’t some creep, she made her way over and slid into the saved chair. He moved aside to allow her enough space, smiling.

“Figured I’d save you from falling over again,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“I’m Luke, by the way,” he offered her a hand. “Forgot to mention that last time.”

“Julie,” she said, shaking it, and her unease began to slip away.

They didn’t speak again that morning, both settling in to put their headphones on and zone out, but when Julie got off at her stop she found herself waving goodbye and felt a little sorry that she hadn’t thought of anything else to say.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the last time she saw Luke. He was there the next week too, and the one after, always on that same double seat and always saving the spare for her, and soon she found he’d ingrained himself into her Monday morning routine. They would say hello, maybe chat for a minute or two about their weekends, and then put their respective headsets on. Bit by bit she learned about him, gaining random windows into his world with every conversation, and in return she would offer up her own life. Tentatively, she began to think of them as friends.

Flynn hadn’t had time to make a Spotify playlist this week. She sighed, scrolling through her songs, but nothing felt right. She turned to Luke. He was lounging against the back of his seat, one hand on his phone and the other scribbling in a pocket-sized notebook. He often did that when new lyrics had popped into his head. She liked to read them over his shoulder when he wasn’t looking. Catching her eye, he tugged out a headphone with one eyebrow raised.

“What’re you listening to?” she asked.

“Uh…” red crept across his cheek and Julie was filled with a sudden desperate curiosity. “Nothing really.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” she said. 

“Okay, well… first I just wanna say I’m not some, like, weird narcissist or anything, okay? But I’m in a band and I’m listening to our demo.”

“You’re listening to your own band?” she giggled.

“We’re reworking some of the songs, I just wanna make sure we get it right!”

“Sure, sure,” she said. “Of course.”

He rolled his eyes, nudging her gently with his elbow, and she laughed again.

“You wanna hear?”

He offered her an earphone. She took it gingerly.

“This is you singing?” she asked in surprise.

It was loud and energetic. Unapologetically rock. Not her usual kind of sound, more something her dad or Carlos might listen too, but the song was fast-paced and catchy. She found herself bobbing her foot along to the beat with a smile.

“You like it?” he asked.

She nodded. “It’s really good. Is it online anywhere?”

He leaned back with a satisfied grin.

“No, but I could send it to you if you want?” 

She might’ve been imagining things, but she thought Luke might have had a hopeful note to his voice as he asked. Almost like he wanted an excuse to talk to her outside of these weekly morning meetings. 

Or maybe she just wanted the excuse.

That night she fell asleep listening to _Sunset Curve’s_ working demo. Luke’s voice stayed stuck in her head for the rest of the week.

“Morning!” Luke said, moving his bag so Julie could sit and handing her a cup of coffee.

It had been a few months. The metro remained packed, maintenance going as well as ever it seemed, and the two of them had taken to texting in the days between seeing one another. Julie couldn’t lie – she loved it. Luke was funny and strange, and a little more than chaotic, and Flynn had begun to tease her about the way she smiled at her phone when they talked. There was just something about him. They connected. 

“I love you,” she said, breathing in the rich mocha scent and taking a long gulp.

“I know, I know,” he grinned. “I’m awesome.”

“And so humble.”

“Modesty is for suckers.”

“If you say so,” she laughed, leaning back and revelling in the way their arms pressed up against one another.

“So I was thinking,” he said, scratching the back of his head in the way she’d begun to realise he did when he was nervous. “We’ve got a gig coming up, right? Next week. At the Orpheum-”

“The Orpheum?!” Julie’s eyebrows flew up towards her hairline. “Oh my God, that’s huge! Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

He grinned sheepishly, shrugging.

“I was kinda trying to figure out a way to ask you to come.”

“Oh. You… you want me there?”

“Definitely,” he nodded. “You’re like… our biggest fan. Plus, the guys really wanna meet you. And I thought maybe we could, I don’t know, go out for pancakes or something afterwards? Just the two of us.”

“Luke,” Julie said slowly. “Are you asking me on a date?”

“That depends. Are you saying yes?”

She smiled, heart racing.

“Well, who could ever say no to pancakes?”

The metro rail was a holy place in the early hours of the morning. Of course, it could also be a hellish place, depending on the weather and the day, or the general mood of the population upon waking up, but most of the time Julie liked to think of it as holy. 

Why? Because it meant every morning she got to sit with her boyfriend, lean against his shoulder, and bask in the warmth of his smile knowing she was the luckiest girl on earth. 


End file.
